Issues and debates

Universality

• a theory that is believed to be applicable to all people regardless of their gender

• e.g low seretonin causes depression in males& females

Gender bias

This is where our ideas about different gender identities should behave affects objectivity

• When one gender is preferred/favoured over another gender

• One gender is discriminated against via prejudicial attitudes or behaviour

Alpha bias

• When researchers over emphasise the difference between males and females 

• e.g males are competitive and females are caring

Examples of Alpha bias in research

• Men want to impregnate as many women as possible to pass their genes down- Suggests sexual proxiuity in males is genetically determined

• Females need to be more choosy to ensure the healthy survival of her genes

Androcentrism

• Presenting male dominated view, behaviour of me taken as the norm

Examples of androcentrism

• research by Milgram (1963), Asch (1951) and Zimbardo (1973) used all-male samples to draw conclusions about the nature of, respectively, destructive obedience, normative conformity and conformity to social roles

  • This assumes that the findings from this research represent a general population when in fact 50% of the population was unrepresented in each study

Beta Bias

• When researchers ignore or downplay differences between males and females

• Often occurs when females aren’t part of the research process

Examples of beta bias

The fight or flight response is based on the male experience which can only explain biological mechanisms

Strengths of gender bias

+RAISES AWARNESS & IMPROVES RESEARCH PRACTICES

• Highlighting gender bias has made psychologists more reflective bout their methods- Researchers now aim for gender balanced samples

• For example more modern research ensures both men and women are represented in clinical trials and cognitive studies

• This leads to better validity and more representative findings

+ENCOURAGES THEORIES THAT ARE MORE HOLISTIC & INCLUSIVE

• critiquing gender bias has pushed psychology towards more holistic explanations

• Feminist psychology has broadened understanding by incorporating women’s perfectives

• This reflects human behaviour across all genders due to a richer, more balanced knowledge base

Weaknesses of Gender bias

-LEADS TO INACCURATE FINDINGS

• in early psychology studies were mainly focus on men and conducted using male participant (Zimbardo conformity and obedience)

• these studies fail to account for the differences between males and females, leading to misleading conclusions

• This limits the validity of psychological research and prevents the development of theories to be applied to both genders

-REINFORCEMENT OF GENDER STEREOTYPES

• Freuds theory portrayed women as inferior to men, such as his concept of ‘penis envy’

• this can lead to the expectation that women and men should behave in certain ways based on their gender rather than persuading their own interest

• the reinforcement of these stereotypes leads to gender inequality

What is culture bias

• The tendency for researchers to interpret behaviours of findings through the lens of their own cultures assumptions and values

• This often leads to misinterpretations of people from different cultural backgrounds

ethnocentrism

• judging and evaluating other cultures in terms of the norms and values of your own

• the beliefs and behaviours of your own ethnic group are presented as normal

cultural relativism

• the idea that norma’s and values can only be meaningfully understood within specific social and cultural contexts

• It is the antedote to ethnocentrism

imposed etic

• assuming research h developed in one culture can be used to study another culture

• eg strange situation

Etics

• looks at behaviour from outside the culture and attempts to describe universal behaviours

emic

• an approach that functions inside culture

• investigating a culture from within that culture and identifying behaviours that are specific to that culture

individualist

• concerned with the self, focus on independence and self achievement

collectivist

concerned with group needs, prioritise the community etc

strengths of culture bias

+INCREASED AWARENESS LEADS TO BETTER RESEARCH PRACTICES

• this highlights how culture bias has made researchers more reflective about their methods

• researchers now aim to gain culture balanced samples

• and example of this is how modern researchers travel more to gain a better understanding of different cultures which enables different concepts of living to be views

• culture bias has pushed for studies to be more globally representative improving validity and validity of research across cultures

Weaknesses of culture bias

-LEADS TO DAMAGING CONSEQUENCES

• the US army IQ test that showed how African Americans had the lowest mental age compared to Americans and South eastern european immigrants

• This lead to stereotypes concerning ethnicity groups and their IQ, It was used by eugenicists who believed that some cultural groups are more inferior to others and should be restricted from breeding

• This shows how damage can be done by psychologists who take an ethnocentrism view and illustrates how research can be used to justify discrimination and prejudice

-LIMITS GENERALISABILITY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

• Ash’s conformity study was conducted using only american participants but were originally assumed to reflect universal human behaviour

• later replications in other cultures showed significantly different results suggesting that these behaviours are influenced by cultural norms (individualist and collectivist)

• this undermines the external validity of research and shows how cultural bias can lead to incorrect assumptions about human nature

Examples of culturally biased research

Ainsworth secure attachment is the best

• Ethnocentrism

• suggested ideal attachment type is secure, child rearing styles in other cultures are therefore seen to deviate from this norm

• grossman and grossman found high levels of avoidant in Germany

Milgram

• Etic

• Factors specific to America may not have resulted in high levels of obedience

• Americans socialised to repeat authority from a young age

how to reduce culture bias

• use native researchers with in the culture being investigated

• don’t generalise to cultures not represented in the sample

Reductionism

• the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into smaller components

• use the simplest explanations to understand how they work

Biological Reductionism

• all behaviour is at some point biological

• neurochemical, genetic influences

• e.g OCD reduced to basal ganglia impairments

Environmental reductionism

• Behaviourist approach

• breaks complex learning into simple associations and reinforcements that are measurable

Holism

• Looking at the whole picture rather than it constituent parts

• Interaction between the smaller parts provide meaning

• Humanistic psychology argues we have to look at the whole person and not just the sum of their parts

levels of explanations

There are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in Psychology

• some approaches are more reductionist than others

• highest levels= social and cultural explanations of behaviour

• middle level= psychological explanation behavioural, cognitive, psychodynamic

• lowest level=biological explanations

Case for reductionsism

REDUCTIONISM ID CONSISTENT WITH SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

• breaking phenomena down into smaller parts can be used to scientifically test the claims which gives psychology greater credibility

• e.g operationalising attachment into observable behaviours separation anxiety safe base etc has given credibility to the use of the strange situation as a reliable research tool

• Reductionists research provide high level of predictive power in isolating causes which meets the features of science

• however; it may lack ecological validity therefore not generalisable

RWA APPLICATION: offers prospect of treatments

• Drug therapies have only emerged due to taking a biologically reductionist approach

• e.g development of SSRIs to treat depression is based on addressing the reuptake of seretonin and has reduced institutionalisation and improved people’s lives

• offer a humane approach to treating mental illnesses as they don’t blame the patient

Case for Holism

SOME BEHAVIOURS CAN ONLY BE UNDERSTOOD AR A HIGHER LEVEL

• Holism emphasis the complex nature of human behaviour

• e.g many aspects of social behaviour e.g so cannot be understood at the individual physical level

• therefore for some behaviours higher level explanations provide a more valid account than reductionist ones

however it doesn’t establish causes, which don’t allow prediction, therefore not therapies

Free will

• Humanistic

• Th notion that humans make choices and their behaviour and thoughts aren’t determined by biological or external forces

• voluntary

Determinism

• Behavioural, bio, slt, cognitive, psychodynamic

• all behaviour is governed by internal and external forces

• future behaviour is predictable and there are identify able causes

Hard determinism

• Bio, behavioural

• All behaviour is caused by something

• all behaviour is predicted and out of our control

• no free will

Soft determinism

• Cognitive, SLT

• behaviour is governed to an extent but in the absence of force we have a degree of choice

• we can excercise rotational control if need be

Biological determinism

• Biological

• Behaviour is cause by biological influences that we can’t control

• Determined by internal or biological factors

Environmental determinism

• behaviourist

• Behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we can’t control

• all behaviour is determined by previous experience, external forces

Psychic determinism

• Psychodynamic

• behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we cannot control

• originated in unconscious conflicts

Why is determinism consistent with the aims of science

• one of the basic assumptions of science is causality

• everything has an identifiable cause

• determinsism is ultimately about causation which can be explained via establishing universal laws

• allows scientists to make predictions and control future events

Case for free will

ACKNOWLEDGING FREE WILL CAN HAVE A POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON MENTAL HEALTH

• people with high internal locus of control tend to have a higher degree of mental health

• Robert’s found adults with strong belief in fatalism were at greater risk of depression

• this suggests thinking we have free will has a positive effect on behaviour

HAS FACE VALIDITY

• it feels intuitively correct

• it matches our everyday subjective experiences which tells us that we make choices and are in control of our actions

Case for determinism

DETERMINISTIC EXPLANATIONS ARE CONSISTENT WITH THE AIMS OF SCIENCE

• the value of such research is in allowing us to predict human behaviour

• free will is a non physical phenomenon which is difficult to quantify and measure

• This is at odds with the scientific nature of psychology

• the existent of free will is more about belief than evidence

APPLICATIONS TO THE REAL WORLD

• causal explanaitions for schizophrenia have allowed treatments to be developed which have benefited many people

• If we view mental illnesses are determined by biological factors then it follows that treatments should target biochemistry

• with advances in science and technology this is increasingly possible

nature

• nativists

• they would suggest that behaviours, conditions and character traits are innate as a result of heredity

example of nature research

• bowly propesed children come into the world biologically programmed to form attachments because it will help them survive

• SSRIs reduce a chemical imbalance linked to the sert gene

interactionists

combination of both nature and nurture

• nature has an effect on nutrient and visa versa and these two collaborative forces influence us

• An individuals characteristics such as gender may elicit particular responses from other people which then influences the individuals behavior

examples of interventionists in research

Diathesis stress model

• suggests that a diathesis (vulnerability) to a mental disorder may exist but will only develop is environmental stressors (triggers) are present

nurture

Empiricists

• suggests we are a product of environmental influences

• they argue our mind is a blank slate at birth upon which learning and experience write

• deterministic- all bvr is the result of interactions with the environment

example of nurture in research

• behaviourist explain attachment in terms of classical conditioning where food is associated with the parent and through repeated pairings the parent becomes a CS who elicits a CR in the child and attachment occurs

Real world applications of nature

• help identify behaviours that are inherited and therefore lead to appropriate or useful interventions

• drug therapies have been developed as a result of nature explanations which treat behavioural or psychological problems that we have a physiological origin

• SSRIs treat depression

real world application of nurture

• help identify behaviours that are learned and therefore lead to appropriate or useful interventions

• if behaviour is suseptable to our environment we need to consider how we adapt our environment

• e.g using role models to help promote behvaiours

weakness of nature-nuture it is reductionist to try and separate nature and nurture

• it is meaningless as they both contribute

• PKU- caused by the inheritance of 2 recessive genes- unable to break down the amino acid which builds up in the blood and brain causing mental retardation

• if put on a low protein diet for the first 12 years of life they avoid the disease- illustrates how genes and environment are much less separate than was previously thought

weaknesses of nn difficult to study

• isolation bio and environment is hard

• twin studies are problematic- difficult to tell if the reason for high concordance rates is because of identical genes or same childhood experiences

• illustrates how interactionist position has a merit

idiographic approach